"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." ~Thomas J. Watson
"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." ~Mark Twain
Wilma Mankiller once said, ""In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people." This, in my opinion, is a mark of a true Leader; one who considers everything through the wisdom of the past as well as the needs of the future in every decision, not just the people, situations or needs of the present. Somewhere, we the people stopped caring about or involving our selves in our government. Politicians are corrupt. They curry favor from corporations, other countries, and each other. This is generally accepted to be truth all across our country.
The politicians' sole objective is to sell themselves to the people, and we tend to be drawn to whomever is most charismatic and says things we want to hear, not necessarily who is most qualified or honorable. We are bored with the constant bickering of our nation's leaders. We are tired of petty behaviors, the lies, the spin doctors, the corruption and the oh so glamorous televised approach. Pharmaceutical industries make millions off of vital medicines which cost them a pittance to produce, and people who cannot pay suffer and die. Did you know that there are American citizens out there at this time who actually believe that Iraq is responsible for the 9/11 bombings? And what ever happened to those "weapons of mass destruction" that Iraq was amassing? Oh yes, that's right...they didn't exist.
"Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders." ~Tom Peters
"A leader is a dealer in hope." ~Napoleon Bonaparte, attributed
"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep." ~Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." ~ Albert Einstein
Even taking into account the unknown percentage of people who believe that soap operas or other televised characters are real people, actions speak louder than words. The highest officials in our country right now are making millions of dollars off of an unjust military action while good people who believed in them die half the world away. An oh-so Christian customer actually told me that I shouldn't want our troops to come home because "those people" want us dead. I guess "thou shalt not kill" is under a special dispensation for the duration of our time in Iraq. It's OK, I understand. People have been absolving themselves and using War and Religion as a reason to justify killing each other for centuries. All manner of atrocities are excused when people are feeling fearful or righteous, and I guess I shouldn't have so blithely assumed that we had evolved beyond this behavior.
"Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? ~Barbara Bush Mrs. Bush spoke these words on ABC's "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003.
"All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity; strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it."- "The Private History of the Campaign That Failed"
"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
- "Chronicle of Young Satan" Mark Twain
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen." ~ The War Prayer by Mark Twain
In the most recent Democratic debate hosted by NBC on January 15, 2008, NBC actually took some alarmingly devious actions. The top four candidates were invited and contracted to the televised debate. Governor Bill Richardson was in the number four slot and he withdrew, which made way for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Suddenly, NBC withdrew the invitation with no real explanation. So, GE (which owns NBC) was flexing its corporately funded muscle to keep this Congressman out of the debate. One has to wonder why such a powerful corporation would take the time and effort to exclude a single candidate?
Kucinich took it to court which ruled in his favor on the grounds that all candidates must be represented fairly. An emergency session of the Nevada Supreme Court at the last moment over-ruled this decision in favor of NBC and even implied that rights of NBC were being violated! Ok, look... I wouldn't tell anyone how to vote. I'd offer my opinion if asked, and I am definitely taking the effort to put the reminder out there that Actions speak louder than words. The voting records and career decisions of these people are available for public perusal and I definitely encourage others to take that time during any election. I'd probably even be willing to debate the pros and cons of any issue you'd care to discuss. But simply put, this is a wake up call, people!
"... I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh Adam's sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!" ~ Aslan from C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew
"Be noble! and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping, but never dead, will rise in majesty to meet thine own." ~ James Russell Lowell
A multi-million dollar corporation is trying to dictate to the American people who does and does not count as a candidate for the highest office in our country. Even more disturbing, not one of the remaining candidates protested this dismissive and dishonorable action by NBC. The single most dis-stressing aspect of this whole situation is that there are not more outraged citizens out there! Here's how I see it. If the remaining three candidates felt not even a twinge of civil responsibility in this instance, which they obviously did not, then they most certainly will not choose honorable or responsible actions if elected! Their individual choices to appear on NBC's televised debate after the company had broken contract with the fourth candidate wipes them clean off the board for me as a voter.
This is an excellent example of how power corrupts, and a warning that we are on the brink of loosing all our choices as citizens. Actions speak louder than words, and politicians can talk both sides of an issue without every saying a single thing worth listening to. A true and honorable person with the proper qualities to be a leader would never have condoned such unethical behavior by participating in that debate. A politician is not a leader, and we have been electing politicians for far too many years. I will not support NBC, GE or any other company or individual that presumes to dictate to our citizens. It is well beyond time that we wake up, take our country back and insist on a government we can be proud of, don't you think? I, for one, am tired of drinking sand when I know there is water out there somewhere.
"People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."
"Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference." Lewis Rothschild and President Andrew Shepherd from An American President
"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." ~Mark Twain
Wilma Mankiller once said, ""In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people." This, in my opinion, is a mark of a true Leader; one who considers everything through the wisdom of the past as well as the needs of the future in every decision, not just the people, situations or needs of the present. Somewhere, we the people stopped caring about or involving our selves in our government. Politicians are corrupt. They curry favor from corporations, other countries, and each other. This is generally accepted to be truth all across our country.
The politicians' sole objective is to sell themselves to the people, and we tend to be drawn to whomever is most charismatic and says things we want to hear, not necessarily who is most qualified or honorable. We are bored with the constant bickering of our nation's leaders. We are tired of petty behaviors, the lies, the spin doctors, the corruption and the oh so glamorous televised approach. Pharmaceutical industries make millions off of vital medicines which cost them a pittance to produce, and people who cannot pay suffer and die. Did you know that there are American citizens out there at this time who actually believe that Iraq is responsible for the 9/11 bombings? And what ever happened to those "weapons of mass destruction" that Iraq was amassing? Oh yes, that's right...they didn't exist.
"Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders." ~Tom Peters
"A leader is a dealer in hope." ~Napoleon Bonaparte, attributed
"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep." ~Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." ~ Albert Einstein
Even taking into account the unknown percentage of people who believe that soap operas or other televised characters are real people, actions speak louder than words. The highest officials in our country right now are making millions of dollars off of an unjust military action while good people who believed in them die half the world away. An oh-so Christian customer actually told me that I shouldn't want our troops to come home because "those people" want us dead. I guess "thou shalt not kill" is under a special dispensation for the duration of our time in Iraq. It's OK, I understand. People have been absolving themselves and using War and Religion as a reason to justify killing each other for centuries. All manner of atrocities are excused when people are feeling fearful or righteous, and I guess I shouldn't have so blithely assumed that we had evolved beyond this behavior.
"Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? ~Barbara Bush Mrs. Bush spoke these words on ABC's "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003.
"All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity; strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it."- "The Private History of the Campaign That Failed"
"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
- "Chronicle of Young Satan" Mark Twain
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen." ~ The War Prayer by Mark Twain
In the most recent Democratic debate hosted by NBC on January 15, 2008, NBC actually took some alarmingly devious actions. The top four candidates were invited and contracted to the televised debate. Governor Bill Richardson was in the number four slot and he withdrew, which made way for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Suddenly, NBC withdrew the invitation with no real explanation. So, GE (which owns NBC) was flexing its corporately funded muscle to keep this Congressman out of the debate. One has to wonder why such a powerful corporation would take the time and effort to exclude a single candidate?
Kucinich took it to court which ruled in his favor on the grounds that all candidates must be represented fairly. An emergency session of the Nevada Supreme Court at the last moment over-ruled this decision in favor of NBC and even implied that rights of NBC were being violated! Ok, look... I wouldn't tell anyone how to vote. I'd offer my opinion if asked, and I am definitely taking the effort to put the reminder out there that Actions speak louder than words. The voting records and career decisions of these people are available for public perusal and I definitely encourage others to take that time during any election. I'd probably even be willing to debate the pros and cons of any issue you'd care to discuss. But simply put, this is a wake up call, people!
"... I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh Adam's sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!" ~ Aslan from C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew
"Be noble! and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping, but never dead, will rise in majesty to meet thine own." ~ James Russell Lowell
A multi-million dollar corporation is trying to dictate to the American people who does and does not count as a candidate for the highest office in our country. Even more disturbing, not one of the remaining candidates protested this dismissive and dishonorable action by NBC. The single most dis-stressing aspect of this whole situation is that there are not more outraged citizens out there! Here's how I see it. If the remaining three candidates felt not even a twinge of civil responsibility in this instance, which they obviously did not, then they most certainly will not choose honorable or responsible actions if elected! Their individual choices to appear on NBC's televised debate after the company had broken contract with the fourth candidate wipes them clean off the board for me as a voter.
This is an excellent example of how power corrupts, and a warning that we are on the brink of loosing all our choices as citizens. Actions speak louder than words, and politicians can talk both sides of an issue without every saying a single thing worth listening to. A true and honorable person with the proper qualities to be a leader would never have condoned such unethical behavior by participating in that debate. A politician is not a leader, and we have been electing politicians for far too many years. I will not support NBC, GE or any other company or individual that presumes to dictate to our citizens. It is well beyond time that we wake up, take our country back and insist on a government we can be proud of, don't you think? I, for one, am tired of drinking sand when I know there is water out there somewhere.
"People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."
"Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference." Lewis Rothschild and President Andrew Shepherd from An American President
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Comments: 25
I'm not normally a big conspiracy theorist but.... www.zeitgeistmovie.com
More and more
get less and less
the best sacrificed
to great God Success
Anger
building
brick by bloody brick
Is it a surprise
("Look! Into my eyes!")
when the peasants cackle
resurrecting the guillotine
Raw power
hot metal shooting
making unmistakable mark
burning ragged skin and guts
and glory
Tell me a story, daddy
about before the war
when water flowed
in abundant freedom
when the air was pure
of the stench
of progress
when everybody had
a sacred right
to feel
and believe
and dance in the moonlight
when we could afford to be
young, untried, open
to possibilities not cut off
by a sacrificial knife
repeatedly deeply severing
vital organs
without regard to the waste
with no respect for place
or the people for whom that space
holds stories
Weapons forged in anger
built up shattered layers of
desperate pride, disrespect, grief
create festering wounds
poisoning the populace
unto the Seventh Generation
caught up in some grotesque
morality play
(c) April 27, 2006 Laurie Corzett
Of course Kucinich is trying to get Cheney impeached, that would certainly ruffle a few corporate feathers...
I'm voting for him, even though he's not my particular party - he's the one that matches my beliefs and thoughts on most all issues from a test site listed below!
pick your candidate test
But you should try out my group The Great Debate . It is a political debate group I started over a year ago :) I love political debate and feature those I agree and don't agree with.
It is appearent that all of them are not worthy of protecting the Americas from anything they are all to busy selling it out.
I reregistered this year but I have a problem with trying to find someone to vote for,no one has yet grabbed my vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYWWBwf2wHE
Gee that makes things clearer! lol not like he coulda ticked off any body.
http://www.dennis4president.com/meet-elizabeth/
http://www.dennis4president.com/go/issues/
http://www.votesmart.org
I too often wondered why people tend to believe even after they have been proven to be lies, why is it harder to be nice to people then to be hateful,